Brother MFC-7840W Laser Multifunction Center
by Brother Printer
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List Price: Our Price: $309.99 You Save: $140.00 (31%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $150.00 (click here) Category: Office Product See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Brother MFC-7840W Laser Multifunction Center
Customer Review: Electronics Novice:This was a replacement for my 13 year old HP printer
Summary: 5 Stars
I am NOT an expert on electronics so here is my review from the standpoint of an average consumer. I have a ThinkPad T61, a 2Wire wireless internet modem provide by ATT Uverse, and have Windows 7 as my laptop operating system. I decided I wanted a wireless printer that would also make the occasional copy for me, or scan something I wanted to email to someone, and started reading Amazon reviews. I quickly ruled out HP as I read that the quality has declined. That left Canon and Brother as reportedly high reliability brands. At first I wanted a color Canon printer because it's a small machine. Then I started reading reviews about how Canon color printers go through huge amounts of ink and thus cost a lot of money. I realized that I don't have to have a color printer, and the size of the machine isn't critical as I plan to keep it in a closet rather than on a desk. Before deciding on which printer to buy, I picked a firm from Angie's List to do the installation in my home. I sought some advice from one of their techs and he said has this Brother machine and is very happy with it.
The tech who came out had this machine running for me in less than 30 minutes. I tested it by using it to make a copy, printing from it, and scanning a newspaper article. Even though it only prints and copies black and white, it scans in color. The tech explained to me the various scanning options - "image" gives you an exact copy of whatever you scanned. But if I change the setting to "OCR" I get a TEXT document that I can edit. To scan you can either use the feeder, or open the top and lay the item on the glass. The hinges for the lid are made in such a way that you can lift the lid straight up to place a book on the glass if you need to do so for scanning or copying. The tech set the machine to save all my scans in one folder and then he put a shortcut to that folder on my desktop. My only issue is that if I scan two pages the machine generates two files - instead of one file with 2 pages in it.
When I do an image scan I get a jpg which I think anyone can open. I don't have Adobe writer, so I don't know if you can set the machine to create a pdf. Right now my laptop software includes Microsoft Office 7 with Word, Excel and Powerpoint. However, I have used a free software called OpenOffice and imagine it would work just as well as the Microsoft office product. I understand there are also free programs that create and read pdfs.
The only negative I have noticed is that the machine is somewhat slow in printing and scanning. However, that is compared to the $10,000+ machines I have used in offices where I have worked over the last few years. For under $300, I feel that this is an excellent machine. If I have any problems with it (I've been using it for less than a week now) I will amend this review.
Customer Review: All-In-One printer does what it has to
Summary: 4 Stars
The Brother MFC-7840W is really a great printer and since it is built by Brother, I wasn't worried about the expectations.
Design:
The design of the printer is great, it is labeled as "compact" but it really isn't THAT small, though since it is an all-in-one I guess there is no way for it to become smaller. The black and grey color scheme really make it looks much more appealing and sitting in my office, it is not an eye sore.
Function:
-Printing: it is standard black and white laser printing, fast and clean, all my prints come out very clear, blacks will be pure black and the way it prints greys is good enough.
-Faxing: i connected my fax line into the printer and setting up was a breeze, I did a test run and there really were no problems here, works as a regular fax machine and that's all i need.
-Scanning: you are given the option through the software on your computer of scanning with different settings(image, OCR, e-mail, file). i haven't tried the OCR feature yet. one thing is that the scanner can be very slow sometimes, depending on your settings(which can be modified). in the end, the outcome was good.
-Copying: this function works fine, works just like any other copy machine out there.
-Wireless: this part can always be a problem since it is a feature that is still in development with most companies. but it seems like Brother really did a great job in making the wireless function easy to use and easy to install. all i had to do was install the software included with the printer on each of the computers in my household, i even have a mac to test out the mac software. the software does everything for you, and once the install is finished, you are ready to use the printer wirelessly.
My Thoughts:
I really enjoy the wireless function, currently the printer is connected to nothing, just the power supply to keep it on, i have 3 computers around the house and they are all connected through it wirelessly, it really is amazing. when scanning a document or image, you can scan it straight from the machine and send the scanned file directly to a certain computer by selecting it on the printer, i though that was cool. i really like the custom scanning features which allow you to scan at different resolutions, colors, and sizes. the big paper tray makes me not worry about running out of paper.
Pros:
-great design
-fast printing/copying
-high-quality prints
-fax, scan, and copy work efficiently
-wireless function easy to setup and use
Cons;
-slow scanning @ different settings
-printer size is to big to be labeled "compact"
-only includes starter toner
Customer Review: STAY AWAY if You Want Ease of Use
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought this printer because of the reasonable price, the multi-function capabilities, its wireless capabilities, and the decent reviews on Amazon.
I was duped.
I am pretty good with computers, and this printer makes me want to throw it off the balcony.
I initially set it up wirelessly without a problem; I configured the printer itself, and it detected my wireless router and got on. I installed "Control Center 3" on all my computers, and "CC3" detected the printer over the wireless network, and it was done. Everything was fine... until I unplugged the printer. Now, you have to go and set everything up all over again. I had read somewhere that you must un-install the software and re-install it, so that's what I did. It again worked just fine.
But then one day, it just stopped working, and I had not unplugged it. So, I called Brother Tech Support, and I worked with the tech support for over 30 minutes, and we could not get the printer to be detected by "CC3". The printer itself had logged onto the wireless router and had an IP address. We pinged the IP address of the router, and the router was fine. We pinged the IP of the printer, and it didn't respond. So, tech support had me do a factory reset on the printer and re-setup to the point where it's connected to the router. Still, no cigar. Finally, we gave up and I said I'd just plug it in physically.
The next day, however, I tried all the methods as the day before, and magically, the printer was detected. It was now functioning normally.
Just recently, however, after about two weeks of not using it... it's now undetected, even though the printer itself picks up a valid IP from the router. I tried everything again, but to no avail. So... I moved it and plugged it into the router. Great, "CC3" detects it now, but when I choose the printer, it's asking for a password. WHAT PASSWORD? Why is there a password? I did not set one up, and I cannot find anything about it in all of Brother's documents regarding this multi-function. I tried to call tech support... but guess what? They're closed. What kind of tech-support is this?
I'm going to try un-installing and re-installing "CC3". But, even if that works, I'm going to buy a new printer once the starter toner runs out. The whole point of getting this thing was to have it anywhere in the room I wanted... not under my desk!
I DO NOT RECOMMEND this printer to anyone except for maybe an IT professional.
The only reason it gets two stars instead of one, is because when you photocopy, it works fine. The print-outs are also of decent quality.
DO NOT GET IT if you want to enjoy EASE OF USE.
Customer Review: Good driver/support software, easy setup
Summary: 5 Stars
My last printer was an HP LJ3030 and I was honestly very frustrated with the mediocre software that came with it. Auto-cropping during scanning that could not be disabled, Universal drivers that would not work, etc.
Going into this, I was a little apprehensive since my home network consists of many different machines and I want to have this printer work standalone on my WiFi network being shared by all my machines. With my HP, the Vista drivers wouldn't work right, my XP machines couldn't see the HP with a Vista machine as the print server, blah blah all sorts of headaches.
To my surprise, I was able to get the printer to work very easily with an XP Home PC, two XP Pro PCs, a 32-bit Vista Thinkpad and a 64-bit Vista desktop. I can scan documents over the network from any machine using Adobe Acrobat, send faxes and it's great not having to turn on another PC just to print from a network printer.
Just make sure you follow the quick start setup guide, get the printer logged into your WiFi network first, install the software suite that comes with it on each machine and the setup goes really easily.
It's not the fastest printer out there, but it's still pretty darned quick and for the very reasonable price, I really can't complain.
I can't speak to the power consumption, but I'm running the MFC-7840W, a notebook, desktop PC, LCD monitor, speakers, router, network HD, USB HD, phone and some other stuff on the same circuit and there doesn't seem to be a problem with any circuits blowing. I'm wondering if those people that are having power issues have a grounding problem? The manual does say to make sure that the printer is properly grounded to avoid surges and shocks.
All in all, I'm very pleased with the software and features of this printer, and got 5 computers running 4 different versions of Windows sharing this printer quite easily. This printer is a very good value IMO. I don't think I'll be going back to an HP printer anytime soon.
Update 2/9/2009 - Ok, I've been using this printer for almost a month now and I still really really like it. Usually after a few weeks little problems that weren't immediately apparent start to pop up. So far, there is nothing about this printer that really bugs me. The manual feed opening is just so-so, but I only use it for special occasions like printing invitations, i.e. not often. This printer is quiet, as fast as I would ever need it for home use, and the software works great. I'm sticking with my 5 star rating.
Now if it would only clean my fish tank for me...
Customer Review: Good MultiFunction, but high peak power demand
Summary: 2 Stars
My HP LaserJet 3055 (also a networked, muti-function printer) broke about a month ago, and I chose this model as a replacement. I use it primarily as a printer, occasionally as a scanner or fax. I have a dedicated copy machine, so don't use that feature too much. I haven't yet used the automatic document feeder too much, but it worked well on the one 20 page document I scanned. I'd expect that this kind of flat ADF would work well -- as opposed to the vertical type which is known to be jam prone.
The printer, scanner and fax all work well, but as noted by another reviewer (B. Bassett 9/10/08), the power requirements are unusually high during printing. I have a 20 amp circuit coming into my study and no previous printer or copier (all laser based) caused my UPS to click over to battery, but this one does every time I print. It only squeals its warning for a fraction of a second, but it typically happens several times during the print cycle, including once well after the printing is done. Not a huge annoyance, but one I didn't expect and enough to drop at least one star in my rating. I'm not sure if I'd have given it 3 or 4 stars otherwise, but suspect that 3 is what I'd have given it due to the general difficulty of installing networked printers (see below).
The average power consumption is good. I have a power meter and test all new devices like this. Over 10 days of light usage it averaged 7.3 watts which is close to the instantaneous reading when it's in standby mode. The fan stays on longer than I'd like after even a short printing job (I hate fan noise), but that's only a minor annoyance compared to the UPS squeals.
Another reviewer complained about Brother's quality control and said he'd stick with HP. Well, my HP printer was only two years old when it broke and a similar unit I'd bought my daughter failed after just one year. So, I'm not sure HP's QC is any better (or as good as) Brother's.
I had no difficulty getting the networking feature to work with my Macs, but that may have been because I spent a lot of time figuring it out two years ago when I got the HP. As a warning: Setting up a networked printer is not as simple as it sounds. At least a significant fraction of the people I've talked with about it found it to be a major pain. That's a general comment on networked printers, not specific to this model.